A total of 15 million new malware strains will have been detected by the end of this year, but the security industry is panicking in its attempt to keep up with the scale and sophistication of the threats, according to anti-virus vendor Kaspersky Lab.

Chief executive Eugene Kaspersky revealed today at the firm's annual press event in Moscow that the figure had jumped from just two million new instances of malware in 2007.

"It would be no surprise if the cyber-crime business [in 2008] was worth not less than $100bn [£68bn]," he said. "Unfortunately, the anti-malware industry is in a panic. It has finally recognised that it needs to invest more in technology."

Kaspersky estimated that there are "tens of thousands of people in the cyber-crime business", and that security vendors are engaging in technical espionage and battling with each other to recruit the best engineers in order to keep up.

"It is very difficult to find enough talented software engineers," he explained. "But we would never hire a cyber criminal because it is easier to develop an attack than to develop a protection."

The security provider has become heavily involved with Russian universities, which are traditionally strong in engineering and technology, and is using industry conferences to scout for new talent, according to Nikolay Grebennikov, vice president of research and development at Kaspersky Lab.

In related news, security services provider MessageLabs released its final threat report of the year today, reporting a year-on-year increase in new malicious web site blocks of over 80 per cent, or an average of 2,290 a day. The vendor attributed the increase to a rise in SQL injection attacks.